IOR/L/PS/12/3965A

The file concerns proposals by various commercial banks for the extension of banking facilities in the Persian Gulf. The file particularly relates to Saudi Arabia, Bahrein [Bahrain], Dubai, Muscat and Oman, and Qatar. The India Office were keen to ensure that banking in the Persian Gulf remained in British hands: 'It is of course preferable on political grounds that we should have British banks rather than American banks where possible in Arabia' (internal memorandum, 15 August 1944).

The papers cover: interest from the Eastern Bank Limited in establishing a branch at Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia, and resistance to the proposal from the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO), 1944; interest from the Imperial Bank of Iran (IBI) in opening a branch in Bahrain, and the view of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles Geoffrey Prior, the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, that the IBI were a better and stronger bank than the Eastern Bank Limited, and had a better understanding of Persian trade, 1944; a proposal by the National City Bank of New York to open a branch at Dhahran, 1944; interest from the Imperial Bank of Iran in opening a branch at Muscat, 1945-48; copy of banking agreement between Said bin Maktum [Saʻīd bin Maktūm Āl Maktūm], Shaikh of Dubai, and the Imperial Bank of Iran, 5 January 1946; interest from the Eastern Bank Limited in opening a branch at Qatar, 1947; correspondence concerning the inclusion of the Gulf states in the sterling area, 1947; and the view of the Eastern Bank Limited that trade at Muscat was primitive, and that consideration of opening a branch there should be postponed, 1948.

In addition to India Office (later, Commonwealth Relations Office) correspondence and memoranda, the main correspondents are the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, the Foreign Office, and representatives of the banks concerned.

The file includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.